Remarkable Trees of the World

by Thomas Pakenham

Overview

"A stunning volume" (Time) and the most magnificent book on the world's trees published in years.

The publication of Remarkable Trees of the World took American audiences by storm. Thomas Pakenham embarks on a five-year odyssey to most of the temperate and tropical regions of the world to photograph sixty trees of remarkable personality and presence: Dwarfs, Giants, Monuments, and Aliens; the lovingly tended midgets of Japan; the enormous strangler from India; and the 4,700-year "Old Methusalehs." American readers will be fascinated by Pakenham's first examination of North American trees, including the towering Redwoods of Sequoia and Yosemite, the gaunt Joshua Trees of Death Valley and the Bristlecone pines discovered in California's White Mountains.

Many of these trees were already famous—champions by girth, height, volume or age—while others had never previously been caught by the camera. Pakenham's five-year odyssey, sweating it out with a 30 pound Linhof camera and tripod, took him to most of the temperate and many of the tropical regions of the world. Although North American trees dominate this book, Pakenham also trekked to remote regions in Mexico, all over Europe, parts of Asia including Japan, northern and southern Africa, Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand.

Remarkable Trees of the World is a lavish work that will be treasured for generations by all those who marvel at nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393325294
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/17/2003
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 11.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Thomas Pakenham's Meetings with Remarkable Trees received international acclaim. His other books include Remarkable Trees of the World, The Boer War and The Scramble for Africa, which won the Alan Paton Award. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	6
1	Giants
	Gods
	Last of the Maori Gods	14
	The Hyena and the Baobabs	19
	Goddesses
	Saving the Great Mother Goddess	26
	Any Fool Can Climb a Gum Tree	30
	Redwoods with Heads in the Clouds	32
	Nectar at the House of Representatives	36
	The Bachelor and the Three Graces	39
	Grizzlies
	The Cedars They Turned into Totems	42
	The Tree That Looks Like a Troll	44
	Sherman v. Grant in the Sierras	47
	At the Feet of the Emperor	51
2	Dwarfs
	For Fear of Little Men
	No Love Lost Between the Brothers	57
	Bury Me in a Tomb of Granite	58
	The Golden Cup of Joshua Tree Park	61
	The Beachcomber of Monterey	62
	In Bondage
	Tie up My Feet, Darling, and I'll Live for Ever	68
3	Methuselahs
	The Living and the Dead
	The Old Man and the Mountain	74
	The Kvilleken and the Green Man	78
	Parsifal and the Holy Grail	81
	They Say You Knew Julius Caesar	82
	Justice under the Oak	84
	Did the Dragon Grow a New Head?	86
	Shrines
	First a Staff, Then a Leaning Tower	90
	How They Saved the Chapel Oak	92
	The Tree from the Tree Where Buddha Sat	94
	The Tree of the Great Healer	98
	Tulips Too High for the Bees	100
	The Tree with Nine Wives	102
	Bowing Politely to the Camphor Trees	105
	Homage to a Tree Like Proteus	108
	The Other Tree under Which Buddha Sat	110
4	Dreams
	Prisoners
	The Men They Locked into Trees	116
	Aliens
	The Pink Beanstalks of Rotorua	120
	A Line in Defence of the Governor	122
	St Anthony's American Bouquet	125
	A Fossil Aussie for Bussaco?	126
	Knees-up at Santorso	128
	Lovers and Dancers
	Kiss me, I'm a Baobab	132
	When the Band Played in the Tree	135
	Snakes and Ladders
	The Tree that Became a Village	138
	The 800 Corkscrews of Verzy	140
	Where Angels Didn't Fear to Tread	142
	Trust Me, I'm a Python	144
	Going down, not Coming up	146
	Two Serpents in the Garden	148
	Ghosts
	Failing David Douglas	154
	When Moses Followed Joshua	158
	The Girl Who Lay under the Banyans	161
	A Tomb with a View	162
5	Trees in Peril
	Do the Loggers Always Win?
	Ashes to Ashes	168
	The Vanishing Totara	170
	The Man Who Fought with Giants	172
	Lay My Bones at Nolan Creek	174
	Ten Green Bottles
	Spirits of the Forest	178
	The Elephant with Only One Foot	180
	Sunset for the Baobabs of Morondava	182
	Gazetteer	186
	Bibliography	188
	Illustration credits	188
	Index	189

Editorial Reviews

"Informative and inspiring."

American Gardener

"Spectacular...the specimens photographed here are surpassingly bizarre and varied....[An] astonishing collection."

New York Times - Janet Maslin

While walking in South Africa in 1829, the British missionary Robert Moffat came upon a giant fig tree so large that, according to his report, it housed seventeen huts in its branches. The historian Thomas Pakenham, in Remarkable Trees of the World, spent four years searching for such giants -- "trees with noble brows and strong personalities" -- and recording their mythologies. The baobab, native to Africa, Madagascar, and Australia, was of special interest to him; according to African legend, trees were gifts to animals from the Great Spirit, and the hyena, enraged to be given the baobab, speared it into the ground, leaving its tangled roots to become branches. American trees are equally impressive: one of California's ancient sequoias, the "Stratosphere Giant," stands taller than a thirty-story skyscraper.

In 1848, New York needed trees: they were considered the "lungs of the City," according to a new field guide published by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, New York City Trees, written and illustrated by Edward Sibley Barnard. The guide describes more than a hundred local species, and it also explains which park was razed by Civil War soldiers, why Orchard Street is so named, and where to find the city's little-known sassafras thickets.

The environmentalist Robert Marshall's The People's Forests first published in 1933, urges public ownership of forestland to guard against logging and other urban perils. On the other hand, Marshall acknowledges the persistence of nature. "The death of the forest and the death of man are not quite the same," he writes. "When a man dies it is the end."( Lauren Porcaro)

The New Yorker

Adult/High School-Following Meetings with Remarkable Trees (Random, 1998), which features trees in Britain and Ireland, this book sets out to discover more such natural wonders elsewhere. In Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, he finds 60 commanding giants and dwarfs, Methuselahs, shrines, and "dream" trees of many kinds. Whether he is meeting baobabs, sequoias, or banyans, he finds magnificence, beauty, and, sometimes, sadness. He has a genius for communicating his sense of each tree as an individual being, engendering wonder, awe, and respect for it in readers. His thoughtful but brisk narratives bring his travels to life and readers feel that they are participants in an adventure as he experiences trees, their ecological and historical contexts, and the challenges of creating photographs of such difficult and special subjects. And Pakenham's color photographs are truly remarkable as he conveys the tactile aspect of bark, the sense of size or majesty, or the rare moment when the light is just right to capture the spirit of the tree. Chapters are further enhanced with historical illustrations (often, earlier views of the same trees) and snippets of poetry ranging from Alfred, Lord Tennyson to Ogden Nash. Pakenham ends with a chapter on "Trees in Peril." This beautiful and unique book is sure to be appreciated by nature lovers. And though it is a highly personal work and not a scientific text, it demonstrates keen and accurate observation; it could also serve as an excellent supplement to studies in science, history, and geography.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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